Karaoke Forums

I saw the banner at the top of this page here at Karaoke Scene and I decided to go over to Power Karaoke and see if anything is new over there and I was quite surprised and pleased to see that Siglos Professional now has tempo adjustment like my beloved KaraFun. This isn't an important function for most people, but for me it's a critical for when I do my singing show.

Now that they have tempo control I'm very seriously considering buying Siglos Professional for doing my singing shows and for hosting too. I don't have a regular hosting job, but I'm about to start knocking on doors around town to see if I can pick up a few nights per week and host full time.

Does anyone here use Siglos Professional regularly?
What do you like about it?
What don't you like?
How is the sound quality?
How does it do with filler music?
How easy or difficult is it to learn? How easy or difficult is it to use?
How is the search function? Thanks in advance.

Well, i just downloaded the demo and answered one of my questions, the sound quality is excellent. I don't see the tempo adjustment, but I didn't check for updates and the demo download may not be the most recent version.

I need to play with the program some more because I don't see how to use the filler music or if it crossfades from one song to another. If it does I can use the same program to DJ and host Karaoke and that would be great.

It looks a lot more refined than Hoster. I've never tried Cumpuhost, it's just more expensive than what I want to spend.

The demo has locked up on me a couple of times so my enthusiasm is dampened,
sigh . . .

Add up how much you make in a year, then factor in the cost of your rig and the price of Compuhost is miniscule. One show (or weekend) will pay for it and you can even deduct 100% off your taxes! IMHO, you get what you pay for.

In this area hosts are paid $100-$150 per night so I don't think Compuhost will pay for itself in one night. If you're trying to make a profit and earn a living, your costs need to be a fration of your revenues because you still have taxes, equipment maintenance etc. to contend with.

I need to take another look at Compuhost since it is the most talked about and I have read more positive things about it than any other Karaoke hosting program. It's the initial cost that I'm hung up on, like coming up with the down payment on a house, that's the hardest part.

I guess if I'm going to be doing this 5 nights a week then I should have the best program . . .

Compuhost is $179. Ok. 1 1/2 nights out of the entire year.



There are plenty of programs that are cheaper. Heck, many are free. I guess I am just an odd-duck cause I see $179 as a drop in the bucket for what I believe is THE most important part of my entire setup. It's the one piece of gear I have to touch constantly, all night long and a very small investment compared to the amps, speakers, subwoofers, mics, music, etc. Heck some guys around here spend more than that on a single microphone!

It's a KJ's #1 tool and if it sucks, your night sucks. IMO, It would be like a professional photographer buying the cheapest camera he can find.

I may be dumb or something, but I have tried Compuhost (just the trial version tho) and I actually found it quite confusing. It seems like a host would spend more time trying to deal with the hosting program than they would actually interacting with the crowd. Now if you host as a duo, one person running technical end and one "shmoozing" and dealing with the singers, then Compuhost might work just fine.

If the demo version is that complicated, how is the full hoster program? I agree there are lots of tools that are available with it, and they seem like they would be terrific, but couldn't a simpler program be just as effective? I use JustKaraoke by Tricerasoft, and I like it a lot. It has good features, easy to use and is quite inexpensive. Alright, thats just my . Stogie, whatever you decide I am sure will be the right decision.

Good point Mr. Scott. Simplicity and ease of use is EXTREMELY important to me. I need to take another look at Just Karaoke. It may be plenty good enough for hosting. I have two DJ programs that I use that can be used for filler.

I'm not that hung up on rotation management in the software, I can do that easily enough with a pen and pad. The most important things to me are sound quality, quality key change and ease of use-of course price is important too . Thanks

JustKaraoke is easy to install, only takes about 2 minutes. I figured out how to use it and most of the tools in about 5 minutes. It's only about 25 bucks too! It has key changer, singer history, plays any zip folder, has quick sound effects that you choose, and yes it does manage you rotation for you if you let it, and it also announces the singer too. The ony thing that I haven't tried to figure out yet, is how to put my logo onscreen. Someone told me how to do it, but I haven't tried it yet. Good luck!

Try Sax & Dotty Show Hoster too if you dont need it to do filler ,I do the same use a DJ program,only thing some people dont like is it uses winamp with it ,but Ive used for 3 years with no probs and the last year on the newest version which has singer history .
Worth a try even if you just trial it.

I don't get this at all. I use Compuhost and have easily trained newbies to use it. Once you get the singers in, you have their history and selecting a song is two seconds. Rotation is managed for you. Searching is dead simple and happens in a couple of keystrokes.

_________________
[color=#ffff55]Mickey J.[/color]
Alas for those who never sing, but die with all their music in them.
-- Oliver Wendell Holmes, Sr.

Like i said,,,maybe i'm dumb,,,,,but it could also be that the demo version sucks major "d*ck". sorry to say that, but it does. You can't do MOST of the functions with the demo, and the biggest hassle is the fact the files have to be named,,"just-so" or compuhost won't recognize them. Loading the library isn't quite as easy as you might like it either. Once it's all set up, with the full program, then I can see how it might be a good program. It's the getting prepared part that sucks badly. You already have it set up before you try to train a "newbie",, try and ask them to set it up and configure it completely from scratch, they will probably quit within 10 minutes and tell you that you are a nazi or something. Again, my opinion

I probably would be using Sax and Dotty if it wasn't built on winamp. I've seen it and it looks simple-several local KJs are using it. I have tried and used winamp a bunch of times and I've uninstalled it and every scrap of it has been eradicated from my computer. I also tried and used autokdj-just didn't like it at all and the plug in for key change and tempo change is ancient and I don't think it has been updated in years.

The one program that I have had the most success with is the ultra simple KaraFun.
It's not good for hosting, but it works great for practicing/rehearsal. The key change and tempo control work great. It will even play Karaoke songs from a Karaoke disc.

It's so simple to just drag a file from a folder into the playlist and then it can be dragged up or down in the list. Simple, simple, simple. I search using the windows Vista search function when I need to find a file and it's fast and easy to dod, Karafun's search isn't so good.

I got a surprise recently when I downloaded VLC media player and it will play Karaoke files. It doesn't have key change or tempo change, but it's free and it works fine. It will also play MP4 files and many other formats, but it doesn't have crossfading.

Really? Mr. Scott you are seriously misinformed! After using Compuhost for over 3 years, I am a huge advocate of Compuhost, and have turned a ton of hosts on to it, and everyone of them are glad I did.

Addressing your inaccuracies..

You state...
You can't do MOST of the functions with the demo

The fact...
The demo is limited ONLY by the song playback time, ALL other functions are unlimited. I even downloaded the latest demo just now to make sure nothing has changed.

You state...
and the biggest hassle is the fact the files have to be named,,"just-so" or compuhost won't recognize them.

Compuhost will recognize the 6 most common naming standards, in fact more than most hosters. Virtually ALL hosters will depend on the files to adhere to one or more standards, in Compuhost's case, it's more!

To anyone contemplating moving to computer, and in search of software, be aware that you will receive many opinions, many misinformed, but the deciding opinion should be yours alone. DO NOT depend on the opinions of others, try out all of the available options and choose the one that best suits YOUR needs!

Compuhost is the hottest and most popular hoster out there right now, and for good reason. Don't sell yourself short by not at least giving it a try.

tbreen

I still don't get it. It easily imports files named in almost any format you *consistently* provide. I believe it can even import more than one format in different directories, but since I have standardized on SC8146-03 - Allman Brothers Band, The - Ramblin' Man.zip, I only have to have one. It would also handle most any other format I have seen. You just point it at a directory, and it goes to town. (Most any program -- except MTU Hoster -- will do that.)

I have used almost all of the programs at one time or another, and I find CompuHost the easiest to deal with. Especially when it comes to show-differentiating features like the video/audio clips, scrolling marquee, promotional slideshows, etc. That kind of stuff makes the program pay for itself in no time flat with better promotion and advertising. And it is dead simple to set up if you keep an open mind. I bet you could even find someone here to have a phone call with you to guide you through some of the things. TBreen is an expert on the program and he will always help. So will I.

_________________
[color=#ffff55]Mickey J.[/color]
Alas for those who never sing, but die with all their music in them.
-- Oliver Wendell Holmes, Sr.

Some of us made mistakes to begin with when naming files (me in particular),,,and now are paying the price for our lack of foresight. Compuhost demo wont recognize a lot of my files, so it's not worth it. However Just Karaoke recognizes them all. I do see how after all is set up right, then Compuhost would be ok. But I still think it's a bit more complicated than I would prefer. I don't want to spend most of my time dealing with a hoster program, rather than with my customers. That's how I see it.

I also forgot to mention, the demo version of Compuhost that I tried, WON"T let me do MOST of the functions...maybe it has something to do with my computer,,,dunno. But at each of several functions that i try, i keep getting error messages, compuhost error messages about the demo limits,,,so i find it frustrating. I am NOT saying that Compuhost isn't a good program, cuz I think it would be if it's done right. But again, I am very happy with Just Karaoke, so real no need to go elsewhere.

If you think that Compuhost is complicated, then you are right. It's not for you.

I have been sitting here trying to figure out the issues with Compuhost demo, and have come to the conclusion that it's my computer, there must be some drivers missing or something. Compuhost absolutely wont let one file be loaded. I can add singers names just fine, and a few messages too. If my computer was not a piece of hud, then compuhost might be fun. However, i still get error messages about the demo limits.

Forgive me for being ignorant about this, but is compuhost the one that requires the dongle? If so, that would be another issue with me, losing equipment isn't cool. USB ports aren't a problem, just wouldn't want to lose the dongle is all. That's one of the reasons JustKaroke is cool, it's a stand alone program, with good features.

But as far as Stogie first question,,,,sorry to say, I don't know of anyone who uses Siglos Professional at all.

I tried Siglos professional at first i liked it ,bought it then realized it was just too much for me like mr. scott maybe i'm just dumb
went to just karaoke and never looked back